il Crustico - '73 Moto Guzzi Eldorado Basket case Restoration
- Thread starter adventurco
- Start date
A few weeks after dropping the motor and trans off, I got a (money-saving) call that the crankcase was so dirty and corroded that it would probably end up eating most of my bottom end rebuild budget for the Guzzi doc to blast them. He had pulled the crank bearings and cam out, and cleaned it up, so I decided to find some fine glass bead to drop in the blasting cabinet and have at it myself. Took a while as my compressor shit the bed, I bought a new one, that one shit the bed, and the crankcase BARELY fit into the cabinet.
After 10 or so hours of blasting, I got the crankcase all cleaned up and with a nice finish. I cleaned the crap out of it, washed it down and then applied Sharkhide to protect the bare aluminum.
Before:
After:
When I disassembled the engine, the exhaust collars were a special PITA. The heads have internal threads and the exhaust collar, originally made of chromed brass, thread into the heads. Enter galvanic corrosion. These things were so stuck, it took rounds and rounds of soaking, heating, and beating on them with the spanner wrench and a BFH to finally get one side loose. The right side, however, was not so friendly. I ended up cutting the header pipe off (the exhaust was rotten to shit so will be replaced anyways) just to get the motor out of the frame, with the plan to go in with a dremel and carefully extract the collar and header. Dreading this job but one day I grabbed the head and chocked it up in the vice and started cutting.
I cut just about all the way through in multiple places, tapped it with a hammer to free it up, and finally was able to put a big ol' pipe wrench on the collar and get it to turn. A small victory, but once I got the collar all the way off, the threads unfortunately came with it. Currently waiting to hear back from a machinist who has the tooling to repair these heads specifically to see if we can repair the threads on the right side head or whether we'll use a replacement from his stash, luckily we've sourced a suitable replacement head as a backup if this one can't be repaired.
With the right side head on hold for the moment, I wanted to get the valves and left side cleaned up so we could determine whether we'd be doing new guides on that side. I degreased it and did my best to remove the hundreds of mud dauber nests between all the fins, threw it in the blast cabinet.
Once the head was done, I cleaned it and made sure to get all the media out of the nooks and crannies, blasted the valves lightly, and applied the Sharkhide. Mostly using a cloth and a Q-Tip, pretty tedious work but I've heard only great things about how this stuff holds up on bare metal.
So these went back up to the doc for bottom end reassembly, along with new conrod big end bearing shells and small end brass bushings. SD-Tech clutch kit will be installed as well to remedy worn splines due to an older design of the internal clutch discs.
The trans has been disassembled and all the internals are in good shape. The bike wasn't ridden hard, though it did appear that the U-joint went once and scored up the transmission case a bit. Minor damage, but an interesting note.
After 10 or so hours of blasting, I got the crankcase all cleaned up and with a nice finish. I cleaned the crap out of it, washed it down and then applied Sharkhide to protect the bare aluminum.
Before:
After:
When I disassembled the engine, the exhaust collars were a special PITA. The heads have internal threads and the exhaust collar, originally made of chromed brass, thread into the heads. Enter galvanic corrosion. These things were so stuck, it took rounds and rounds of soaking, heating, and beating on them with the spanner wrench and a BFH to finally get one side loose. The right side, however, was not so friendly. I ended up cutting the header pipe off (the exhaust was rotten to shit so will be replaced anyways) just to get the motor out of the frame, with the plan to go in with a dremel and carefully extract the collar and header. Dreading this job but one day I grabbed the head and chocked it up in the vice and started cutting.
I cut just about all the way through in multiple places, tapped it with a hammer to free it up, and finally was able to put a big ol' pipe wrench on the collar and get it to turn. A small victory, but once I got the collar all the way off, the threads unfortunately came with it. Currently waiting to hear back from a machinist who has the tooling to repair these heads specifically to see if we can repair the threads on the right side head or whether we'll use a replacement from his stash, luckily we've sourced a suitable replacement head as a backup if this one can't be repaired.
With the right side head on hold for the moment, I wanted to get the valves and left side cleaned up so we could determine whether we'd be doing new guides on that side. I degreased it and did my best to remove the hundreds of mud dauber nests between all the fins, threw it in the blast cabinet.
Once the head was done, I cleaned it and made sure to get all the media out of the nooks and crannies, blasted the valves lightly, and applied the Sharkhide. Mostly using a cloth and a Q-Tip, pretty tedious work but I've heard only great things about how this stuff holds up on bare metal.
So these went back up to the doc for bottom end reassembly, along with new conrod big end bearing shells and small end brass bushings. SD-Tech clutch kit will be installed as well to remedy worn splines due to an older design of the internal clutch discs.
The trans has been disassembled and all the internals are in good shape. The bike wasn't ridden hard, though it did appear that the U-joint went once and scored up the transmission case a bit. Minor damage, but an interesting note.
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3D printed a driver for the swingarm pivot races because none of the sockets I have fit to my liking. I forgot I put them in the freezer about 3 weeks ago, so popped them in earlier.
Been working on making a spreadsheet of all the hardware so I know what goes where after everything comes back from plating, which is extremely boring and tedious and I will link once it’s finished in case anyone ever needs it. there was a bunch of loose hardware in the box of parts that came with it so I’m logging those and will figure out where they go eventually.
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Been working on making a spreadsheet of all the hardware so I know what goes where after everything comes back from plating, which is extremely boring and tedious and I will link once it’s finished in case anyone ever needs it. there was a bunch of loose hardware in the box of parts that came with it so I’m logging those and will figure out where they go eventually.
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wozza
Been Around the Block
Pffffft I have a block of wood and a saw...
kool build thread, I have a soft spot for Italian meccanica
thanks, I’m quite happy with it. i have the harbor freight cabinet, with a few mods and a cyclone dust collector. I built a cabinet for the base that sits on casters. I'm using #10 glass bead that i got from a local supplier, which is very fine and gives that nice polished finish.
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Got the steering stem bearing races in today. I keep putting these things in the freezer and then forgetting about them. That 36mm socket I bought to pull the swingarm pivot covers came in handy again as a driver.
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Luugo86
'73 CB350, '78 XS650 Cafe Killer
Thank you for the info man, this is something I will be looking to add to my arsenal in the future.
Mostly just sourcing parts right now. Hope to have hardware out to zinc, and still TBD on the head status.
I picked up a set of DB floorboards to replace the little Triple A set that came with the bike. DB boards on the outside. They need a little love but should be much better. Will need to figure out a shifter that works with them.
I also picked up a new complete wiring harness from Greg Bender over at thisoldtractor.com tailored to this bike. Amazing quality and for the price it’s totally worth not having to mess with the abused and brittle old wiring. He includes the main harness, every sub harness, all the rubber grommets and seals, new bulbs and fuses.
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I picked up a set of DB floorboards to replace the little Triple A set that came with the bike. DB boards on the outside. They need a little love but should be much better. Will need to figure out a shifter that works with them.
I also picked up a new complete wiring harness from Greg Bender over at thisoldtractor.com tailored to this bike. Amazing quality and for the price it’s totally worth not having to mess with the abused and brittle old wiring. He includes the main harness, every sub harness, all the rubber grommets and seals, new bulbs and fuses.
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I guess I'll have to get some fine Italian leather shoes to go with the bike in that case LOL. Doubt I'll have enough money left for a new pair of sketchers once I finish buying parts.
I've never owned a bike with boards or heel/toe shifter, but I plan to refurbish the Triple A boards, as the DG boards need some work and if I can't find or fabricate a shifter that works with 'em, not sure if I'll be able to run them.
A couple weeks ago I rode out to the chrome place and picked up some parts I had rechromed, and dropped off some others. Handlebar to triple tree mounts and clutch/brake perches. Super happy with the quality and decent pricing too.
And I finally got all the hardware categorized and recorded so I know where it goes, shipped everything out to a local plating company and got back a box of nice shiny parts. Some of the stuff is pretty pitted so anything that’s very visible up too may get replaced with stainless. Can’t beat $85 to turn a box of rusty junk into something useful again.
And I finally got all the hardware categorized and recorded so I know where it goes, shipped everything out to a local plating company and got back a box of nice shiny parts. Some of the stuff is pretty pitted so anything that’s very visible up too may get replaced with stainless. Can’t beat $85 to turn a box of rusty junk into something useful again.
Found a couple scores for the Guzzi at Barber. A $25 tank that was attempted to be fixed at some point (poorly), but has much better shape sheet metal/chrome on the knee dents. This may be what ends up on the bike. If not it will look cool on the shelf, and the gas cap is easily worth the purchase price.
I also got a great deal on some Wixom Ranger saddlebags, and since I was on the F650 we had to get creative to get them back to IL. Luckily Irk had some ratchet straps for me and we got ‘em lashed up on top of the Givi bags. They made it all 700 miles back home and will get restored later in the build.
IMO these are the best looking period correct saddlebags for the Eldorado.
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I also got a great deal on some Wixom Ranger saddlebags, and since I was on the F650 we had to get creative to get them back to IL. Luckily Irk had some ratchet straps for me and we got ‘em lashed up on top of the Givi bags. They made it all 700 miles back home and will get restored later in the build.
IMO these are the best looking period correct saddlebags for the Eldorado.
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benroloff
Been Around the Block
How do you like the f650? I’ve been looking at maybe getting a f650gs Dakar when I get out of school. The Dakar model is quite different I think than yours, but the base bike is similar I think. Seems like a decent option for a not too crazy heavy adv?
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